thursday randoms

move along, move along…nothing to see here…

just a random collection of things…

o1) today’s prayers
prayers and thoughts for those in boston.

i don’t wish to seem glib by leaving it there…but really, what more is there to say?

o2) today’s sewing
my simple shirred sundress tutorial has been making the pinterest rounds lately. i do love that look, and it is quite easy.

one person asked if the buttonholes on the back cut the elastic thread and made it unravel.
a good question, and the answer is no, not for me. i’m assuming the tightness of the buttonhole stitching is enough to catch the ends of the elastic thread and keep them secure, even though they run perpendicular to one another (whoa math terms).

o3) today’s sales
another reader asked about the doll bed quilt and pillow i’d made for elliot…if i had plans to put them in my etsy shop.

i don’t…however, if someone is interested in a straight commission i’d be happy to work with you. email me at talktothemomma (at) gmail (dot) com.

o4) today’s film petits
did you see today’s film petit? oh how i love this series—skirt as top and a little gray join forces once a month with a guest to create children’s looks based on awesome films. not children’s films—just awesome films. this month is BACK TO THE FUTURE. and it’s as awesome as you’d think.

 image via

hey ladies, i’m sure you don’t want to overdo the 80’s, but i’m thinking…pretty in pink????

o5) today’s goodbye
so google reader is becoming a thing of the past in july. sniff, sniff…let’s all take a moment and shed a tear. or not. anyway, i’ve added links to bloglovin’ and another blog reader canopi over thar--------->>> in the sidebar.
because i know you wouldn’t want to miss a hot second of the genius that is googiemomma.

o6) today’s poetry + today’s plans
i went into the wood because i wished to live deliberately. yeah, i’m getting all thoreau up in here. but i had this sudden vision of our family—just the mister and i and our googies, alone in the woods. it was a fairly specific vision—a cabin, air, space, no neighbors, no electronics and lots of frog hunting, game playing and marshmallow burning. so i turned to the internets and found my cabin.

image via

it’s tiny and secluded and that creek looks ripe with frogs for hunting, does it not? we don’t have a date nailed down just yet, but i’ve been in contact with the owner and the googies will be headed there. soon. and we’ll live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life. sounds good, right?

o7) today’s mush
monday was april 15th. a big day for taxes, yes. but also a big day in the googiehaus. eleven years ago that was my due date with the little man (he came on the 12th like a good boy). and 15 years ago it was the day mr. googiedaddy took me to a scenic bridge while our friends hid in the woods and asked me to marry him. spoiler alert: i said yes.
like any oblivious momma i totally lost track of the days, so when i came out of gigi’s ballet class on monday to find flowers and a card on my windshield, my first thought was uh-oh, someone mistook my car for someone else’s. but it wasn’t. it was him, remembering what i had forgotten, planning and in cahoots with our kids and a friend to leave behind the regular plans for the day—cleaning, organizing, scrubbing—and return to the bridge.

it’s since been rebuilt—the rusty, rickety thing of our past a shiny new concrete thing. but it was our bridge all the same. and he kept the tradition alive…

he liked it, so he put a ring on it.

something to stand in place of the ring i haven’t been able to wear for…oh..2 or 3 babies. something not too expensive, but shiny and blingy and a link to him. a way to say “i’m taken!”…not because i get hit on lots and lots (ha!) but because i am, and i love that i am, and i want the world to know i am.

i didn’t realize just how much i missed having a wedding ring on my finger until this one was on there.

he’s a good man. and methinks we should visit that bridge more often.

enjoy your thursday.

open diamond cowl

the final scarf in my scarf-a-lot triumvirate is a pattern i wrote. like i mentioned yesterday, i pick the yarn based on the person i’m doing the project for. and this scarf was for my mom—a bulky weight mustard yellow is perfect.

the problem was i had no pattern in mind, and a frustrating and fruitless search of ravelry, plus five or six different patterns started and then frogged led me to start thinking this wasn’t going to work. i like the look of bulky yarn, but i didn’t want something overly bulky if that even makes any sense.

so i finally scrapped all the pattern hunting, thought about what I wanted this to look like, and began crocheting.

i’m pretty stoked by the result. (yeah, i said stoked. so what)

it’s crocheted lengthwise, done in all half-double crochet, with some skipped stitches forming a subtle open diamond pattern to give it some interest.

at the very end i had a smidgen of yarn left, and squeezed out the little button tab closure as an added element for one side.

now here’s where i would share the pattern i wrote, because i was smart and efficient and took notes while i crocheted.

HA!

okay, so here’s where i would share the pattern i wrote, because i took pictures and worked up a sample and wrote it down later.

DOUBLE HA HA!

yeah…i tried to do that, but i realized there was a big error in my pattern. which may explain why i kept wrestling with last rows trying to keep my diamond pattern lined up. i’m not giving up…i’d like to make myself one of these. and when i get the pattern nailed down i’ll be back to share. 

in the meantime, i feel so bad…

oh hey! bonus! it’s awkward me, modeling the cowl before handing it off to my momma…

the crocus scarf

see, i told you these were relevant to spring.

as i was reminded yesterday by a kind commenter, i live in one area of the world that is approaching springtime. but there are large swathes of land where scarf-wearing is still de rigueur—nay, even necessary. you know—like the entire southern hemisphere, for instance.

ugh. how #firstworldproblems of me. i didn’t get my scarf tutorials on my blog fast enough, and now the area I’M in it’s spring! oh noooos!!! i feel so….northeast US-centric.

:/

anyway, moving on…this is another scarf pattern crocheted up for my mother-in-law.

pattern found on ravelry HERE, direct from the knitting daily website HERE, done in my favorite wallet-friendly caron simply soft yarn.

as usual, i changed it a bit—doing three repeats of the pattern vs. two (how it’s written). i also eliminated the edging, and opted for a simple single crochet border squaring off the three edges and following the bumps of the top edge.

it’s another scarf i was in love with, threatening to keep it. threatening who i’m not sure. myself, maybe? but it’s funny…i choose the pattern and the yarn with the person in mind. the entire time i’m working on it i’m thinking about that person. by the time i’ve finished—no matter how much i love the item—in my head it’s theirs. it belongs to them. and so it was with this scarf. i love it—the pattern, the color…but i could no more keep it for myself than i could walk into my mother-in-law’s closet and claim one of her shirts as my own. (her son, on the other hand…him i took. and i’m not giving back. so i’m not entirely sure my analogy works on all levels.)

is this normal with you other sewers/knitters/crocheters/quilters? i’ve only recently become secure enough to start giving the things i’ve made as gifts…so i’m wondering if this is kind of how everyone feels when they make a specific project for a specific someone. like—i love it, but it’s not mine to keep. let’s talk.